VENICE: Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion race is set to accelerate with the highly anticipated biopic “Ferrari” starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz.
Driver’s presence brings much-needed star power to a festival that has decreased celebrity appearances this year due to the Hollywood actors’ strike. Directed by Michael Mann, known for his stylish and glossy thrillers like “Heat” and “Collateral,” “Ferrari” received an exemption from the unions as it was made outside the studio system.
This allowed Driver to attend the premiere. Beyond this, Driver is known for his busy schedule, juggling blockbuster roles in the Star Wars franchise and collaborating with top directors such as Ridley Scott, Noah Baumbach, and Spike Lee.
Another film generating buzz is the premiere of “Dogman” by French director Luc Besson, known for films like “The Fifth Element” and “Leon.”
Described as a mind- and gender-bending tale, “Dogman” tells the story of an abused boy finding solace with a pack of dogs. It features a remarkable performance from Caleb Landry Jones, who previously won the Best Actor award at Cannes for “Nitram,” a film about a mass shooting in Australia.
Besson, hoping for a comeback after the commercial failure of “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” in 2017, is also dealing with a rape allegation that prosecutors dismissed in June.
The Netflix film “El Conde” by Chilean director Pablo Larrain will also have its world premiere at the festival. Larrain, known for his biopics on Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana, presents a peculiar take on Chile’s recent history, reimagining dictator Augusto Pinochet as a vampire.
Venice Film Festival includes other Netflix productions, such as Wes Anderson’s short adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” and David Fincher’s “The Killer.”
In recent years, the Venice Film Festival, now in its 80th edition, has become a prominent platform for Oscar hopefuls. However, the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strike, primarily focused on pay and concerns about AI, has resulted in the cancellation of several major stars’ publicity appearances, including Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper. —APP
